Faculty members at UL plan a show of solidarity with a colleague whose curriculum may be in jeopardy due to anticipated budget cuts.
The coordinator of the German language degree program at UL, along with the chair of the Modern Languages Department and the dean of the College of Liberal Arts, will meet at 2 p.m. Tuesday with Provost Steve Landry and Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs Carolyn Bruder to discuss the future of the program. It’s unclear at this point what the administration will have to say regarding the German program at UL, but several faculty members plan to escort Dr. Caroline Huey, the university’s German language coordinator, to the meeting with Landry and Bruder.
“I and my chair, Dan Kocher, and the dean of liberal arts, David Barry, have been summoned to a meeting today at 2 o’clock, and that is all we know,” says Huey, the only German instructor at the university. Huey says she currently has four students seeking bachelor’s degrees in German and four to six students minoring in the language.
The university, through its deans and chairmen, has been coordinating worst-case-scenario plans for pending budget cuts expected to come down again next year as the state tackles another $1 billion+ budget shortfall — an undertaking historically met by slashing health care and higher education, two areas in the state budget that are not constitutionally protected. The state Board of Regents, which oversees public universities, has over the last couple of years scuttled several degree programs at universities and colleges statewide including the philosophy degree program at UL.
“There’s an academic affairs team that reviews and prioritizes academic programs, created for budget cuts,” Huey explains. “It analyzed the bachelor’s degree concentration in German and has apparently finished analyzing us — me — and wants to present us with the results of their analysis.”
The Ind will check back with Huey later Tuesday to find out what happened in that 2 p.m. meeting. We’ll keep you posted.
... written by Clint Reno , November 30, 2010 - 05:51 pm
"Four students seeking bachelor's degrees in German and four to six (which is it) students minoring in the language". And at what cost for these eight to ten students out of around 17,000?
... written by RCajunrunner , November 30, 2010 - 06:36 pm
Is UL the only university in the state where this major can be obtained? If not, then Higher Ed in Louisiana needs to decide which university, or maybe which two, will carry this program.
There is too much duplication of Higher Ed in this state to be effectively supported by our tax base. And frankly put, foreign language programs don't quite turn out the tax base in graduates that engineering, technology and business majors do.
Harsh way to put it? Maybe. But we are in a recession and short on tax revenues. You need money to fund public higher education, and to get that money, you need taxpayers.
... written by Jason D. Faulk , November 30, 2010 - 08:50 pm
LSU recently had it's German major cancelled. I know, one of my good friends graduated from LSU with a degree (or concentration) in German and International Studies. I think Southeastern is seeing it's programs on the chopping block too. Teaching German might be a bit of luxury when we have French and Spanish, but not if your major is not offered at the school that keeps it. Furthermore, I could see German being highly useful for people majoring in International Business. We know Germany is one of top 10 economies in the world. We know that German car companies and steel mills have looked at Louisiana in recent years.
I don't know which other schools have foreign languages offering German, but these are integral parts to all Liberal Arts based academic work. It is why we offer it in the high schools. It is why we are offering Immersion programs in early childhood education now (along with retaining a bit of our cultural French language here.) These same arguments are targeted at all the liberal art programs in the state. Generally, this schooling makes us better informed citizens, with a diverse set of problem solving and thinking skills. Foreign language schooling is one part of this. There is also a great deal of scholarly work out there which has never been translated. Ostensibly, being literate and fluent in a foreign language will open up more bodies of work to the researcher/scholar. It is also know to offer enhanced learning performance by being bilingual.
Typically in the past, UL's German teacher also provided instruction in several other languages. Also, Dr. Huey may be teaching other students who don't choose to minor in German, but take it to achieve their foreign language requirements (less than a minor) in lieu of taking French or Spanish. So, I'd guess she is teaching more students than just 6 or 7.
Also, one forgotten point here is that most of these liberal arts programs pay for themselves with tuition and basic state support and don't require expensive lab equipment and field work costs to operate. I don't say this to say 'let's dump biology' but on overall cost, these programs are reputed to be more affordable to operate.
This whole false either/or choice is being dumped on us by the governor and his cohorts by virtue of the artificial scarcity being induced by the state budget and constitutional lockdown and the lack of leadership last year and this year to solve the crisis before it hits next year.
This will get worse before it gets better.
... written by ragin_cajun , December 01, 2010 - 02:57 pm
"artificial scarcity being induced by the state budget" There is nothing artificial about it. There is, and will be, less state revenue. So the state can either cut spending, run a deficit, or raise taxes--or some combination of the three.
What do you mean by "artificial scarcity"? The state govt. is not really having this problem? The University doesn't really need to cut this program? Where do you see the lie in this?
Why is Jindal the villain in your narrative? The man committed to the voters that he wouldn't raise taxes, and he is now refusing to do it. I respect that. Don't you?
... written by Leslie Bary , December 01, 2010 - 07:16 pm
4 seeking the BA and 4-6 seeking the minor, and THEN the people who are taking German out of interest and in order to fulfill the foreign language requirement, so this professor has a full load of filled classes.
If we cancel German, then students who formerly took German for the language requirement would have to move into Spanish or French, which would mean opening more classes in those languages and paying someone to teach them. That would also cost money.
You can major in German at Tulane. Current tuition and fees there are $41,884 per year. This is without living expenses.
... written by Farrow , December 01, 2010 - 07:51 pm
>language programs don't quite turn out the tax base
Is that the purpose of education -- to turn out high-wage earners?
... written by RCajunrunner , December 01, 2010 - 10:25 pm
">language programs don't quite turn out the tax base
Is that the purpose of education -- to turn out high-wage earners?"
_________________________________
It's sole purpose? No. But we are in a recession, with dollars short in the state coffers. The current tax base in Louisiana cannot effectively support the current Higher Ed structure, so some sort of consolidations and reductions must take place.
Do you have any suggestions?
... written by ragin_cajun , December 02, 2010 - 01:03 am
"Do you have any suggestions? "
I do. Double tuition for in state college tuition. I posted here very recently shoing how much lower LA college tuition is than state colleges all around us -- it was drastic. We could also reduce the number of colleges in the state. There's 15-20 state colleges? That's madness!
Another thing we could do is hold our politicians' feet to the fire when they make campaign promises about these types of government giveaways and then expand them 5 years later. I recently heard that Mike Foster SWORE up and down that the whole community college system wouldn't add "brick and mortar", wouldn't need new facilities--no brick and mortar, no brick and mortar. Now here we are with not only a college in every town, but a second community college in every town, too.
... written by Jason D. Faulk , December 02, 2010 - 02:27 am
For the umpteenth-millionith time: The budgetary fiasco at work is the result of protecting just about everything else in the budget constitutionally except for this part of education, as well as healthcare. This problem started before the current crop came into office, but their prior lack of corrective action is not excuse for slashing and burning these public needs. Or, as Leslie Barry indicates, we can all just go to Tulane and their outfits, and the state will just churn out tech employees. This whole attitude is why some of the best of our state leave our state and say good riddance. It is, this culture of atavistic aversion to anything that smacks of smarts that we don't like, or let's say perceived uppityness.
Why is it that only left-brain education is favored? Why do we act like everything knowable and valuable is therefore testable and can be monetized immediately? Is our state not well served with people educated broadly and for all needs of this society and it's ecosystem? Is not a balanced approach one which helped our species survive the ice-age and other challenges throughout history?
Oh wait, news flash: there was no ice-age and global warming is a hoax, we were walking around with dinosaurs 6,000 years ago.
One final nugget of value: in KATC's report on the German program, at least incidentally the reporter spoke with a student majoring in business who was helped to get a job with a major employer in Germany, after graduation or internship. Surely valuable experience we should compound upon and see brought back to Louisiana. Did not the American car companies seek to learn from Japanese efficiency in the 80's and 90's? Maybe not. Again, the failing may have been in the culture.
A Doctor friend of mine(no hard-core academic raving liberal stereotype you can conjur) proudly touted that he was "leading the Louisiana Brain Drain" on it's way out and something to the effect of so long suckers.
... written by Leslie Bary , December 02, 2010 - 07:47 am
Re revenue/budget, the Stelly plan could be brought back for one thing, and there could be a more serious tobacco tax, as in other states.
... written by Andrewski , January 06, 2011 - 06:53 pm
Obviously a place like Louisiana does not need language majors. It isn't a cultural center or anything. Why have colleges anyway. isn't high school good enough for most people? Just train people to do simple jobs, and your economy will turn right around.
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